Afternoon all! We have had an offer accepted on a house near Ruffec (16) and will be moving by degrees. We would be delighted to hear from anyone in the area with tales to tell, recommendations to make or advice to impart. We are both fairly competent french speakers and looking forward to the adventure enormously!

Hi Ruffecandready (nice name!)

We are not exactly neighbours, since we have a house in the SE of Charente, just a few k from the border with Dordogne, but we did look at some places in and around Ruffec and found the area delightful. I have heard that there has been quite an influx of British expats into Ruffec recently, so I hope it's not too flooded with them when you finally move. We are hoping to move permanently to our place in the late summer or early autumn (I retire on 1st Oct) so then we'll be only about an hour's drive away!
Good luck with the move
Blackie

Welcome to the Forum

We live 5K outside Ruffec - good pick by the way! Will certainly help as much as we can.
PM me.
Best of luck, Ruffec is a nice town. Although Leclerc here is cr@p.

Leclerc, They are all crap. IMHO Carrefour large stores are better IMHO although Carrefour Markets are a wildcard as they are on 12 year leases to private franchise owners and they are free to invest in the properties as seen fit. Carrefour used this method to free up property assets after serious losses in the previous trading year. Even the large stores have either mothballed or sold off chunks of floorspace and cut down on the goods they carry over the last year. Intermarche also franchise a lot of their stores ones marked as "Super" both our local stores are owned by the same family so you can guess what effect that has on service and as pretty much each Isle has a manager known as a rayons they are individually targeted per year and it is the individuals choice on what ends up on the shelves with the exception of what the chain Corp is running specials on. Very unlike say Tescos which head office has total control over what ends up in stores. Hence stores rarely add or having new stuff. This IMHO will be their greatest stumbling block, Carrefour have also dumped/sold off a bunch of stores in the southwest of France, Intermache purchased them on the conditions set by the ombudsman in France that they sold off a bunch of their currently owned stores to allow fair competition.

Unfortunately no Carrefour for miles, although I think the one in Mansle might be now. There is an ED in Melle - which also has an excellent market.
Leclerc in Perigeux used to be okay, but the meat counter here is generally inedible, vegetables - save the middle man and put straight on the compost heap, bread is made of dust. Household goods are okay, and the cheese counter is good. Fish is a franchise, and expensive but often quite good.
Here Intermarche meat counter is pretty good. (Although the butcher in town is better). Super U at Sauze Vaussais has a good fish counter. Vegetables are hit and miss - mainly miss, but better at Inetrmarche and SuperU than Leclerc(which really is not saying much)
Needless to say some super bakers and patissiers.

FRom the above, we seem quite lucky. We are several Super Us within 30 mins of us in different directions and they are all very good. As good if not better than Waitrose

We are also pretty lucky as well (area around Angouleme) not least for the cut price shop Leader Price which are really good and cheap, except for fresh meat which is a bit doubtful. But the Super U's around us are very good (that's Villebois la Vallette, Nontron)

KaOra - how do you know all this inside stuff about Leclerc and Carrefour, that would make interesting reading!
Blackie

Beg to differ! Our Leclerc (Biars sur Cère, in the Lot, bordering the Corrèze) is fabulous - good food, clean, spacious, well lit, friendly staff...

Intermarché at Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne just up the road not too bad either, but our Leclerc is excellent for almost everything.

Having said that, the next Leclerc along (St Laurent les Tours), is appalling.... in all respects... it presumably depends on the manager??

Many thanks for your reply... I will be sure to PM you just as soon as the admin lets me!

We are about 40 minutes away near Melle. Have had our place for 9 years but now are hoping to make permanent move this summer. Will be out first week in June for a week only and then from the second week in July we hope to be permanent... well at least my husband will, I have to work out my contract!
But if we can help with anything PM me!
We love this area and the people in it!

Hello everyone

Sorry to 'piggyback' on someone else's thread but I just want to say me too! We're moving to a hamlet just outside Ruffec on 2 July. We're hugely excited but also a bit anxious...

I'd welcome help and advice from those willing to share.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Helena (loving your username!), whereabouts are you moving to... we'll be neighbours! We'll be in Les Adjots. Ditto excitement and nerves... I'll feel a lot happier when we have working broadband and a roof that keeps the rain out! I think you can rest assured that there are a number of expats in the area who will always be handy with a glass of something and a helpful word or two. We're due to complete mid-July but are popping over in a couple of weeks to do a few bits and pieces. Feel free to PM me and maybe we can swap local tips and recommendations? Bon courage! M

Thanks so much for the reply. We'll be at Cuchet, near Verteuil sur Charente. Our roof is sound (or was when last we saw it) but setting up our broadband is a worry. Yes, I will PM you soon and look forward to hearing how your move progresses.

Hi Helena. (Your name was always my favourite joke as a teenager. Featured as the choir mistress or something)

We have been here for a year or so. Broadband not such a biggy, Orange and France Telecom fight it out you will find, but in our experience they do what they say they will when they say they will. (getting to that point is a bit different, but really just a matter of adjusting to the rather more relaxed French ways)
Lucky to be near Ruffec - good prosperous town, although the swimming pool is closed, rumour is because the council is bankrupt!

PM me too if you need, happy to help